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heating season starts, is a concession to the realities that despite the rhetoric, the reality is Ukraine is still heavily dependent on imports of power from Belarus.
In the meantime Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has launched an effort to make Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power producer, profitable and to take up the slack. Responsible for producing half of Ukraine’s electricity, Energoatom lost $177mn last year and is currently the focus of reform efforts to improve Ukraine’s energy security and make it less reliant on imports.
The pressure will ease somewhat as Ukraine’s electricity consumption is forecast to fall by one quarter during the 2020s, predicts GlobalData, a London-based data provider. During the last decade, electricity consumption fell by 9%, to 127.3 terawatts, GlobalData says.
Looking ahead, Pavan Vyakaranam, a GlobalData executive, cited several factors for the big drop in the 2020s: “One of the most prominent is its declining population. A slowdown in the commercial and industrial sectors will continue to impact demand in future.”
And the plan to switch from the Soviet grid to the EU is progressing. Ukraine will meet the 18-month deadline to synchronize its power system with the EU one, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, Ukrenergo board chairman, said at a conference last week. The head of Ukraine’s state-owned electricity distribution company, promised: “Synchronization of the Ukrainian energy system with the European one in 2023 will take place. Period.” He said that if Ukraine has more ‘flexibility’ – including industrial energy storage systems – it will allow Ukraine to export more power to the EU.
2.7 Politics - misc
The Biden administration announced on May 19 that it would not sanction the companies insuring and certifying the ships laying the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. In a press briefing posted on state.gov, a State Department spokesperson stated that the impetus for the move was to shore up ties with Germany, and that “all diplomatic tools” would still be used to prevent the completion of the pipeline. The move has come under fire from across the political spectrum in the United States, with energy security and support from CEE partners both being raised as concerns. Moreover, the move came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Reykjavik in advance of a summit between presidents Biden and Putin.
Former Constitutional Court Chairman Oleksandr Tupytskiy was indicted on two counts, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced on May 25. According to the PGO’s announcement posted on its website, Tupytskiy was charged with violating Part 2 of Article 384 (for bribing a witness) and Article 386 (perjury) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The charges relate to Tupytskiy’s alleged interference in the criminal proceedings over “the illegal seizure of property assets of CJSC “Zuyiv Energy and Mechanical Plant”. Tupytskiy had been removed from his post as chairman on March 28 by presidential decree. The Verkhovna Rada had declared him and fellow Constitutional Court judge Oleksandr Kasminin threats to the security of Ukraine.
18 UKRAINE Country Report XXXX 2018 www.intellinews.com